I Think, Therefore I Scam (Myself)

That discrepancy between what you think and what you do -- that is the biggest scam.

We often talk ourselves out of doing the very thing we must, because if we acted upon that "insane" urge, we might find that was the thing we needed to do all along.

For most--if not nearly all-- of my life, I have lived on the inside. Perhaps this is what a "writer" does, they swirl around in worlds that live only within them, until they get the courage and audacity to share those worlds with others.

One of my self-inflicted mental health therapies in the last year has been to become radically visible. I've shirked being seen, as often in the past, when I became too publicly visible, I caused trouble.

Example 1--Collecting signatures for ballot access for third space political parties while simultaneously pissing off both Blue and Red party people.

Example 2--Taking up space in male dominated places and unintentionally acquiring man-cards.

Example 3--Speaking up about environmental and ethical issues while in the presence of conventional-industrial farmers.

Example 4--Raising awareness about the failures of government's management of tax-payer dollars outside of binary political rhetoric.

I could list more, but I'm also not trying to be "too much", again, that little bit of self-doubt warning me not to use my voice.  If a past president can say this, well, maybe I can say a bit of that:

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”-- George W. Bush.

While I'd like to believe that I am not quite in the same category as W. -- I do think having some audacity is required if you are to rise above our ingrained tendencies. To be willing to say the thing, even if it is sometimes utterly absurd, is how you can achieve congruence between what you think you want to be, and how you put your life into action.